Prevention is changing the social norms that allow and perpetuate domestic violence. The core strategy for preventing domestic violence is the promotion of healthy, respectful, nonviolent relationships by shifting attitudes, behaviors, and social norms at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels. While prevention activities will vary by community and population, programs that we contract with must design and engage in efforts that:

(1) Promote attitudes, behaviors, and social conditions aimed at preventing domestic violence before it happens;

(2) Attempt to decrease risk factors for perpetration of abuse as well as victimization while also promoting positive factors that protect individuals from perpetrating or experiencing abuse;

(3) Include strategies that use varied teaching methods to address multiple learning processes;

(4) Are age and developmentally appropriate;

(5) Are culturally and linguistically applicable to the specific community;

(6) Engage with a subsection of the broader community, reaching beyond the program's community of clients;

(7) Emphasize multi-session, comprehensive activities with small, defined communities; and

(8) Include strategies, policies, and programs that are concentrated, can be sustained and expanded over time, and focus on at least one of the following:

(a) Increasing community dialogue about the root causes of intimate partner violence;

(b) Shifting cultural norms;

(c) Building skills for healthy relationships;

(d) Promoting respectful and healthy relationships.